Firesight: The Last Seer
by waistcoat35
Summary: After a haunting sight in the flames after a Colliering mission, Soren is informed by his mentor that he is in fact a Fireseer, a mystic owl that can see the future in flames. He is terrified by what he saw, but while Soren grapples with the future, Ezylryb's problems lie in the past...
**Firesight: The Last Seer**

 **My first Guardians fic, so no flames please - any sent my way will be stored to fight flecks later on. It's in the universe of the film, but with some characters and terminology from the books. If you want to know more about said characters or the words used, check out the Guardians of Ga'hoole wiki, but beware of spoilers.**

 **Chapter One**

Fire. Rain. Blood.

The flames up ahead were almost red as they licked up the tree trunks, and not even the shower of rain pummeling their feathers was enough to douse it. Soren flew in his usual position in the colliering chaw - he would be covering Martin again today, and the others were going to be playing their usual roles. It had been two weeks since the battle with the pure ones, two weeks since he had faced Kludd and perhaps even seen him killed... Two weeks since he had slain the Lord High Tyto and saved his beloved teacher, Ezylryb, from a one-way ticket to Glaumora.

It was this very battle which was the reason they were here - Bubo and several of the rybs believed they could forge new armour that acted in a way not unlike _mu_ metal - it could resist the power of flecks, prevent that awful wrenching pain in your gizzard, the pain which could drive an owl mad and eventually even kill them, no doubt. And the helmets would, of course, prevent the buzzing in your skull, which disorientated an owl no end.

Bubo and Elvan were away on some trip to get the metal they'd need for the armour - Trader Mags wasn't due for some time yet, so they were going to go and collect it from her - so Ezylryb was leading the chaw today. He and Soren had become closer since that battle, and nobody doubted that either would die for the other in a heartbeat.

Now Soren looked back down at the flames - their red colouring make them almost look like swirls of blood - like the burning trees were bleeding, bleeding out. The Pure Ones' markings had looked like they were stained on with blood. And if their brutality was anything to go by, maybe they were. If Kludd had survived, was that what now stained his plumage? Had he really gone over to the pure ones for good?

"...ren? _Soren!"_

Soren shook his head as he came back to reality and saw Ezylryb looking at him with a mixture of concern and mild irritation.

"You ready, boy? Martin's going in!"

Soren nodded. "Sorry, Ezylryb. Ready, Martin?"

The small Northern Saw-Whet nodded, quivering slightly in anticipation, before diving down while Soren flew cover for him. He returned soon after with a beakful of cinders and the same light of triumph in his eyes that had been there the first time he did the job - and had been there every time after.

After Martin had deposited his prize, it was Soren's turn - the young barn owl took a deep breath, and dived. His nerves from his first dive weren't anywhere near as strong, not after riding a blazing inferno at St. Aggie's. But still there were the memories of Kludd falling into the same flames, and likely being reduced to cinders. Soren seized an ember in his beak, and was about to fly back up when he heard it.

A low cackle, a fleeting one, but still there nonetheless. Somehow, the voice making the cackle was familiar, but who it belonged to Soren wasn't sure. It didn't sound like Metal Beak's - and good thing too, as Soren might've gone yeep on the spot if it did. He turned in mid air, amber eyes straining to see who was there. And suddenly, he detected motion in the flames. No, the motion _was_ the flames.

He could see moving figures made of fire - a slim, elegant one that resembled Nyra, queen of the pure ones. Another one that he couldn't quite recognize, with a bulk on its head that looked like a spiked helmet. And a third figure that looked scruffy, and shorter than the other two. In the fire, Soren watched transfixed as the scruffy figure fought the other two valiantly, clawing and dodging like Lyze of Kiel...

Then, the slim, elegant figure knocked the fighting figure over, and the unrecognized figure raised his talons... And struck. Soren didn't even hear his own scream as the scruffy figure fell lifeless to the floor, bleeding out, because he had figured out exactly who it was meant to be.

And then, the fire-figure that had slain the blazing image of his beloved mentor turned and looked right at Soren - for unlike the other two fire-figures, it had eyes - blood red eyes burning with hatred, and a craze for blood that Soren had only seen in the eyes of one owl those dreaded two weeks ago.

He heard it speak two words in a voice so horrifyingly familiar, before he became vaguely aware of a falling tree headed for him. He couldn't move in time though - Soren felt himself going yeep, his wings just starting to fold as the tree bore down on him, when he heard a screech as a set of deformed talons dragged him out the way. Thanks to a stray flaming branch hitting him on the head, Soren's world went black, the last thing he saw being Ezylryb's terrified face with the figure's two haunting words ringing in his skull...

 _"Hello, brother."_

 **DUN DUN DUUUUUN! Please tell me what you think in the reviews, feedback is much appreciated!**


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